Sunday, 25 January 2015

Jews 4 Boycotting Isreali Goods post: Freedom to speak out for Palestine under threat in Britain

Home Secretary Theresa May has seized on bogus statistics
alleging that Jews are in fear of their lives in the UK to placate
pro-Israel lobbyists with measures which pose a threat to those who
speak out for justice for Palestine. Here we present some of the
material available to counter this threat, starting with a letter
submitted by Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods and published in the Guardian newspaper on January 23. Check the link to see the names of those who signed and read other letters on the subject.
• We are shocked and alarmed that the home secretary has been
swept up in the wave of hysteria deliberately whipped up by the
so-called Campaign Against Antisemitism (Theresa May pledges extra police patrols to counter antisemitism threat,
19 January), claiming that a quarter of British Jews were considering
leaving for Israel and that 45% believed that Jews had no long-term
future in Britain. The CAA’s scaremongering report quotes from its own
poll which, according to the Institute of Jewish Policy Research, was
methodologically flawed and unreliable. Another poll by Survation, from a
representative sample of more than 500 of Britain’s Jewish population,
found that 88% of Jews had not considered emigrating.

The home secretary must know that the CAA was set up last summer,
not to fight antisemitism but to counter rising criticism of Israel’s
murderous assault on Gaza. Its first big success was bullying the
Tricycle Theatre into withdrawing its objection to Israeli embassy
funding of the UK Jewish Film Festival. The CAA and the home secretary
conflate anti-Israeli and antisemitic views, convenient cover for her
desire to legislate for a snooper’s charter and criminalise opinions she
disagrees with.Accusing critics of Israel and Zionism of antisemitism merely
devalues the currency, while claiming the right for Jews to censor what
others say about Israel is hardly the way to combat prejudice against
them. We do not deny that there are fears abroad among Jews in Britain,
ourselves included, but we see far greater racist threats to other
minorities in this country, in particular the beleaguered Muslim
community.

The Independent also carried letters on the subject, including one in similar vein from J-BIG’s Tony Greenstein.

The dubious surveys painting a grim picture of antisemitism in Britain came under scrutiny on BBC Radio 4’s More or Less programme, which examines ways in which statistics on many subjects can be misused and misinterpreted.

Jonathan Boyd from the Institute of Jewish Policy Research told the
programme that the CAA poll on Jewish experience of antisemitism had not
met the key, basic requirements for a proper process.
Even the intensely Zionist Jewish Chronicle – always eager to detect
hatred of Jews behind any pro-Palestinian utterance – published a piece debunking the CAA’s report. But it gave the group’s chairman Gideon Falter ample column inches to reply.

This all occurred in the wake of the killings in France
of journalists at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and Jewish shoppers
at a kosher supermarket – immediately pounced upon by the Zionist lobby
as evidence of mass hatred of Jews.

UK satirists at Private Eye seemed to have the measure of hypocritical world leaders with their front cover:

Israeli politicians of both right and left have parroted his
(Netanyahu’s) message that European Jews know ‘in their hearts that they
have only one country.’ The logical corollary is that Jews cannot be
loyal to other states they live in, such as France…In this regard,
Netanyahu and the far-right share much common ground. He wants a Europe
free of Jews..The far-right wants the same…One Israeli commentator noted
pointedly that Israeli politicians like Netanyahu ‘were helping to
finish the job started by the Nazis and their Vichy collaborators:
making France Judenrein.

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About WFPSC

WFPSC was founded at a General Meeting held in Harmony Hall, Walthamstow, on Wednesday 18 February 2009, with Neil Gerrard (then MP for Walthamstow) as its first patron.
Encompassing the whole London borough of Waltham Forest, including Chingford, Walthamstow, Leyton and Leytonstone, the group has a strong membership of PSC subscribers who live locally.
We aim to tackle local community issues in Waltham Forest related to Palestinian rights, make an impact through local municipal processes and PSC's national work on the UK's political agenda in relation to Palestine, and forster links between Waltham Forest communities and Palestinian communities in and around Palestine.

As a branch of PSC, Waltham Forest PSC is established to campaign as follows:

* for the right of self-determination for the Palestinian people;

* for the right of return of the Palestinian people;

* for the immediate withdrawalof the Israeli state from the occupied territories;

* against the oppression and dispossession suffered by the Palestinian people;

* in support of the rights of the Palestinian people and their struggle to achieve these rights;

* to promote Palestinian civil society in the interests of democratic rights and social justice;

* to oppose Israel's occupation and its aggression against neighbouring states;

* in opposition to racism, including anti-jewish prejudice and the apartheid nature of the Israeli state.

WFPSC ladies with F-Team on VPC3, Dec 2009

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Waltham Forest Trades Council supporting local residents as they lobby MPs about Gaza, alongside Palestinians Osama Qashoo and Sameh Habeeb on Weds 11th March 2009